A number of prior devices have been disclosed which attempt to disable a weapon. Some of those are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,682,435 and each of the references cited therein.
With the rising crime rate and increase in population there has been a rise in the demand for firearms safety. One aspect of such safety is to prevent children from taking a weapon when not authorized to do so and accidentally discharging the weapon thereby causing injury to himself or another child or children. A second area of safety is the theft of weapons and their easy accessibility to be sold on the open market. A third area is when a peace officer attempts an arrest and a struggle ensues between the peace officers and a suspect who is being arrested wherein the officer is disarmed and his weapon is used against him. Several events including law enforcement officers have occurred over the past years in which the officer was wounded or killed with his own weapon and no one has been able to successfully prevent these events. To some degree even soldiers are subject to these types of events.
With the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,435, when the weapon is removed from the possession of the authorized user, further active participation is required on his part to activate a separately carried transmitter which then disables the weapon from firing. In the case of an on going struggle involving a peace officer, soldier, etc. the time delay introduced by this extra action could prove fatal.